Bengal commuters suffer as private buses keep off roads

Kolkata, Jan 6 (IANS) Normal life was thrown out of gear in West Bengal Monday as most private buses and minibuses did not ply as transport operators called a 24-hour strike for press their demand for a fare hike.

Commuters in Kolkata faced a harrowing time as only a handful of private and minibuses hit the roads. Many travelled standing on footboards of overcrowded buses.

Benefitting from the buses strike, auto-rickshaws and taxis charged two to three times the normal fare from passengers. Blaming the strikers, Transport Minister Madan Mitra said: "A number of buses which came out on the roads were damaged, stones were thrown indiscriminately at them."

Mitra threatened to take strong action if the strike was not immediately withdrawn. He also ruled out any rise in fares and said the government would not submit to any strong-arm tactics.

As many as five associations have called the strike. These are: Bengal Bus Syndicate, Joint Council of Bus Syndicates, the Minibus operator's Coordination Committee and the All Bengal Bus and Mini Bus Coordination Committee, Howrah, and North Bengal Passenger Transport Owners' Coordination Committee.

The government can afford to run the transport system at a loss since they print notes. Any loss they make can be recouped by increasing taxes on the public.

However, the bus operators are not running a philantrophic organisation. They are in business to make reasonable profits. The key word is reasonable.

We have highly paid cost and chartered accountants in the governments.

In industries workers are given a DA component in their wages which is varies as the consumer price index.

Why can't we have a petroleum price index which could be used to fix the rates for buses, taxis and autos.

We know that petroleum prices may vary both ways.

According to some formula worked out between the government and the transport people, the rates could be made variable according to the average rates of the petroleum index in the last three months.

These new rates should be valid for the next three months.

We cannot allow the whims of a lady to hold the commuters of a state to ransom just because she believes in populism, we commuters are made to suffer.